I have a friend who saw one of my quilts and wants to "buy" one from me. I'm no where near as good as any of you but she liked what I did.
How do you determine what to charge? She picked out material from my "stash" so I don't have to go buy anything "new".

But I have no idea what to charge her.

I've done the double fleece tie blankets (I have a 6 head embroidery machine) and I"ll put names and school mascots on them and usually charge $25 to $45.00 depending on how big they are but that is because the polar fleece can get expensive.

This is much more work in my opinion....

Thoughts?

Well, I don't know how much you should charge, but I do know it cost me close to $200 to get batting, long arm quilting and binding on a twin quilt top I made for my grandson. I don't know if that is typical, cost may be lower in some parts of the country. And I don't like mailing the quilt tops -things do get lost in the mail.

Others may be able to give you better information. As you said, it's a lot of work, a lot of time and time is money!

I don't know of any long arm quilters in my city - I'm sure there is one - we are surrounded by rural cities and I guess I could check with my Singer store....but I was just going to do that part myself - she liked what I had previously done on my embroidery machine (I did each block individually so I didn't have to move the hoop and each block came out the same).

Check out for another look at the cost of making a quilt.

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-62845-1.htm

Jan in VA

Wow really? And here I was thinking charging her $50.00 was way too high....(its only lap size/picnic size). Yikes!

Wonder where she shops...my Warm and Natural Queen batting is only 12.99 on sale at Joannes...buy it every time I get a coupon..buy all my fabrics on sale unless I see one that I can not do without...so fabric avg...5-7 dollars a yard .and none of her prices even come close to what I pay. and labor...if an easy quilt...squares or strip tube, or disappearing 9 patch...I make the top in a day...FMQ in a day...and then bind....so three days for full to queen size quilt. I had a quilt shop FMQ several of my twin quilts and that was 35.00 each. I now do my own not as nice as hers but I have fun doing it.

Your customer is your friend, right? In that case - charge the amount you are comfortable with. Just don't let yourself be taken advantage of ---- let her know the amount you are charging her is just for HER - not everyone!

Sometimes a rule of thumb can be about .05 cents per inch, now this depends on the complexity of the piecing etc. I just did a few quilts for customer that had me piece, quilt and bind and it came to about the .05 per inch. I did supply all fabric and batting for the project. good luck

another thing to think of...is this a hobby or a business..I love making quilts...so if someone will pay for all of the material including thread that is fine by me....then I am doing what I love...for free...

I've read that the rule for any handmade or "crafty" items is that you price it 3 times the amount of supplies in the item(fabric, thread, buttons, etc) and really nothing for your "time".